Live Alive: Ness's Story
by gamer4
Summary: Ness finally returns to Onette after his battle with Giygas, only to find that things aren't quite as he remembers them, and resulting in a battle to save his hometown once again. Part of the Live Alive mini-series!


Gamer4 in! Welcome, one and all, to another short story in my _Live Alive _mini-series! For those of you who haven't read the other short stories in this series, and/or don't intend to, I'll give you a quick rundown- each of the short stories on my profile with the name _Live Alive_ are part of a mini-series, with each short story taking place in a different place, time, and fandom, but with certain ties that bind them together. However, this series is being written in such a way that, if you just want to read a story from one fandom, you can most certainly do so! Today, we visit a game that, despite no longer holding the trophy of my favorite game, still holds a special place in my heart, _Earthbound_! This is probably going to be the most light-hearted of the _Live Alive _stories, so let's dive right in!

Disclaimer: I own an actual cartridge of _Earthbound_, which is more than most can say. And, of course, not long after I went to so much trouble to get it, they _finally _re-release it on the virtual console... *grumble, grumble.* Hey, me, the Zelda story was last time! Now is _Earthbound _time! Also, I don't own the game _Live A Live_ by Squaresoft.

Live Alive

Ness's Story

The Scouring of Onette

"On the first part of the journey, I was looking at life, with plants, and birds, and rocks and some things..." came a voice through the woods, singing gently but pretty loudly as well.

"Ness," came a grumbling voice at his side, "enough with the singing!"

Heedless, the other voice continued. "I've been through the desert on a horse with no name! It felt good to be out of the rain! 'Cause in the desert you remember your name, la, laaaaa, la la la la!"

"You're not even singing it right," the singing boy's companion complained.

Two boys were traveling through the woods between Onette and Twoson, a pair of small towns in the country of Eagleland. One of them was dressed in clothing resembling a suit, had very well-kept blond hair, and a pair of glasses that hid the annoyance currently showing in his brown eyes at his choice of companion. The other boy had black hair, wore a red baseball cap, a blue-and-yellow striped t-shirt, blue jeans, and was walking with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Come on, Jeff, lighten up!" Ness said, ever cheerful. "I mean, come on, we just took down the embodiment of all evil, and you _still _insist on being grouchy all the time!"

"Don't you realize what we just witnessed?" Jeff asked. "The world... it's so much larger than I could have ever thought, and we're just this small part of it... doesn't that throw _you_ off?"

"Not really," Ness shrugged. "I just kinda like doing what I've always done, whether it affects the universe or not. And if any other aliens try to take over earth again... well, we're still the chosen four, right?"

"I... I really hope it doesn't come to that..." Jeff muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. In all the time he'd known Ness, he still didn't understand what kept the boy so relentlessly optimistic, but whatever it was, he wanted some.

Ness continued whistling as he jauntily led the way along the path. It had been a long, hard battle stopping the evil alien demon lord... thing from destroying the world, and at this point, all he wanted to do was unwind at his house with some nice, juicy steak. Mmm... steak. His mouth started watering just thinking about it.

Along the journey, he'd paid a visit to Jeff's hometown of Winters on multiple occasions, but due to... unfortunate circumstances, Jeff had only seen Ness's hometown of Onette once- and during that occasion, it had been under Giygas's heel. Now that Giygas was finally defeated, Ness was eager to show Jeff around his hometown.

Finally, a gap in the trees ahead signified their approach. "Hey, hey, hey!" Ness cheered. "It's about time! WhooooooHOO!" With that cheer, he led the charge out of the trees and into the town, Jeff following with his face in his hand.

Ness immediately ran out into the street. "Oh, it's good to be back! I'm gonna eat so many burgers, it's gonna be awesome!"

Looking around with a grin on his face, he abruptly noticed that something was off. "Huh?"

Jeff finally caught up to him. "Dang it, Ness... don't always run so far ahead..."

"Jeff," Ness asked, raising an eyebrow, "where is everyone?"

"How should I know?" Jeff asked, looking around. "This is _your _town, after all."

"Yeah, but I've never seen it _this _quiet..." Ness scratched his head as he looked around.

The town was like a ghost town. Aside from the boys themselves, there was nobody out on the streets. Ness would have taken out a pin and dropped it to see if he could hear it, but he didn't happen to have a pin on him at the time.

"Usually, things are always so busy out here..." Ness wondered. "I hope Burger King is open, at least..."

Ness and Jeff walked across the streets that Ness knew so well, with Ness occasionally calling out the names of people he'd been looking forward to seeing again. "Captain Strong? Frank? Mom? Dad? Tracy? Anybody?" Finally, they found themselves in front of the Burger King in question. To Ness's intense relief, there seemed to be a couple people in the building, and he wasted no time in throwing open the door and entering.

Ness and Jeff gaped at the sight in front of them. A rough-looking man in a blue jacket had hold of another man by the collar. The man he was grabbing was a young man with blond hair slicked back with enough gel to possibly be a fire hazard, dressed in a sharp suit and sunglasses.

"Where's my chicken fries?!" the man in the blue jacket was yelling at the man with the gel-hair. "I came here for chicken fries, and I'm gonna get them!"

"I'm sorry, sir! We don't have those on our menus anymore!" the man with the gel-hair said desperately. Ness stared- he knew that man, and fear wasn't a common expression on his face.

"Frank?" he gasped.

Both the blue-jacketed man and Fran turned to see Ness and Jeff standing there. The man in the jacket scowled. "Wrong building, kid. Turn around and find somewhere else to eat."

Frank, meanwhile, looked like his salvation had arrived on the doorstep. "Hey, Ness, how's it going, kid?"

"Having... problems?" Ness asked, staring at the scene.

"Oh, no, just a bit of a problematic customer... no real issue at aaaaaAAAAHHHHH!"

The jacketed man had lifted Frank up off of his feet. "You know who I work for, and if I give her the word, she'll flatten this place with you in it!"

"I know, I know! It's just that we don't have any-"

"THEN MAKE SOME!"

"I can't- I mean, I just started working here, and your guys scared off all the other employees, so-"

"Did you just say this is _my_ fault?" the jacketed man growled dangerously. "Clearly, I need to teach you a thing or two about good customer service..."

"Hey, uh... guy?" Ness asked, waving his had. "Um... yeah, you see... that guy's my friend, do you mind not picking on him?"

Jeff sighed. Leave it to Ness to make a request to stop an assault-battery case in such a polite fashion.

"I already told you to beat it, kid," the man growled, dropping Frank, who quickly scurried behind the counter. "Unless you want to take his place on the beating table..."

"Well... um... if you say so," Ness shrugged. "Though I _should _give you a heads-up- Jeff and I just got back from defeating an alien embodiment of all evil, so..."

"Just back from the arcade, huh?" the man asked, cracking his knuckles and grinning evilly. "Just some little gamer punk- oh, this'll be fun..."

He stepped forward, fists raised, only for Ness to quickly take out his trusty Gutsy bat and strike the man to the ground. The man looked up. "What the-"

"Yeah, you see," Jeff said, stepping forward and drawing his own weapon- the all-powerful Gaia beam- "We're not exactly the little kids you're used to picking on."

"Son of a-" the man growled, rising to his feet and wiping his mouth where it had begun to bleed. "The boss'll hear about this, Fly! You have my word!"

With that, the man ran out.

Ness turned to where Frank was still hiding behind the counter. "Hey, Frank, you alright back there?"

Slowly, tremblingly, Frank stood from behind the counter. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said, making a noble effort to hide the fear he'd been displaying only minutes earlier, adjusting his suit and sunglasses.

"Who was your visitor?" Jeff asked.

Frank's eyes fell, for the first time, on Jeff. "Hey, who're you?"

"Oh, this is Jeff Andonuts," Ness said. "He's a friend- I met him while I was out of town."

"Oh, really?" Frank asked, smiling. "Well, a friend of Ness is a friend of mine. What can I get you boys? On the house!"

"Oh, sweet!" Ness said, his eyes lighting up immediately. "Alright, we'll have four double cheeseburgers, five orders of fries, and-"

"That can wait," Jeff interrupted, stepping forward. "Who was that man just now?"

"Oh, he's a member of the newest gang in town," Frank explained. "You see, Ness, things ain't been so good since you left. First there was that alien invasion, and as soon as that cleared up, this gang comes into town and starts trashing the place!"

"Isn't that what you used to do?" Jeff pointed out- he'd never met Frank or his shark gang before, but he'd heard stories about them from Ness.

"Yeah, I guess," Frank shrugged, "but I've changed! Turned over a whole new leaf! Even got myself a decent job here at Burger King!"

"So who is this gang?"

"They all wear blue coats- they call themselves the Blue Bloods. They're led by some crazy chick named... er... can't actually remember her name right now, it's really weird."

"Weird that you can't remember it?"

"No, I can't remember her name _because _it's really weird- no idea what part of the world she comes from, but she's got all the Blue Bloods under her control real good. Most people are too scared to come out of their homes!"

"Well, that's no good," Ness said, his eyebrows raised.

"No, not good at all," Frank shook his head. "And... now that I think about it, that guy's probably gonna be back soon with the rest of the gang! You guys should get outta here- they don't take kindly to people standing up to them."

"Leave?" Ness asked, staring. "No, no, no, no, we're gonna stay and fight!"

"Fight?" Jeff asked. "You want to take on the whole gang?"

"Hey, wouldn't be the first time I took out a whole gang," Ness pointed out.

"Hate to say it," Frank interjected, shaking his head, "but these guys are above and beyond anything the Sharks ever did. They're real pros- you don't mess with them unless you want it to and badly."

"Hmmm..." Ness put a hand to his chin. "Well... still, after everything we've done, it shouldn't be _that _hard..."

"Ness," Jeff said, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder, "I sympathize with you, but I really don't think we can take down an entire street gang by ourselves."

"So... what, are we supposed to just let it be? Just let these guys take over?"

"I didn't say that," Jeff said quickly. "I just said that we couldn't do it alone. But there are two people we can call on for some backup, right?"

"Paula and Poo?" Ness mused. "Well, yeah, that's definitely true."

"And how many other people are there in this town that want the Blue Bloods ousted?" Jeff asked, turning to Frank.

"Oh, just about everybody, I'd imagine," Frank nodded. "They're not doing anybody any good."

"Power in numbers," Jeff said, smiling and tapping his forehead. "Frank, any chance you can get the people of Onette to gather?"

"I can get in touch with the mayor, and he can call a meeting in town hall," Frank shrugged. "People like Ness, they oughtta come if he thinks he has an idea for getting us out of this mess."

"Great," Jeff smiled. "Alright, Ness, I'll go with Frank to make sure everything goes smoothly. You go back home and call up Paula and Poo- we'll need all the help we can get."

"You really have a plan, don't you?" Ness smiled- he'd gotten to know Jeff pretty well over the past few months, and his plans rarely went awry.

"We'll see, we'll see," Jeff said, the smile on his face betraying everything. "Let's just say this Blue Blood woman is in for a surprise..."

XXXX

"Honey, you're back!" Ness's mother cried as he opened the door and entered his home. "Hurry, come in, it's not safe out there!"

"Hello, big brother!" came the voice of Ness's sister, Tracy. "It has been so long!"

"Hey, guys!" Ness said, smiling as he embraced his mother. "It's great to be back- but I'm just stopping in to use the phone!"

"Wait, what?" Ness's mother asked, looking at her son. "Don't you know about the-"

"Blue Bloods?" Ness guessed ahead- he didn't even need to utilize his psychic powers to guess what she'd been about to say. "Yeah, I met up with Frank, and he told me about them. But Jeff and I have a plan to stop them- they'll be coming to town today, and we're gonna take them down!"

"Oh, honey... I know you're a strong boy, but I'm not sure-"

"Trust us- Jeff's always got a plan," Ness smiled. "There's going to be a meeting in town hall, wanna come?"

Ness's mother hesitated only a second or two longer. "Um... alright... I'll just go get my coat on..."

"Awesomesauce!" Ness cheered. "And you, Tracy?"

"I will be there, big brother!"

"Great!" with that, Ness headed over to the phone, picked it up, and began dialing. First was Paula.

*Briiiiiing... briiiiiiiing...*

"Hello? Polestar Preschool, this is Paula speaking."

"Oh, hey, Paula, glad you picked up!"

"Ness! Are you missing me already? We just said goodbye earlier today..."

"Yeah, about that," Ness said, scratching the back of his head. "Turns out, I need some help. You see..." And he went on to explain the situation.

"Yeah, that sounds bad alright," Paula agreed. "Alright, I'll help you out. I'll be right over."

"You think I can send Poo over, and you guys can just teleport here?"

"A-alright..."

"Great. He should be there in a moment."

Ness hung up, then redialed for his friend from Dalaam. A couple of rings later, the voice of said friend answered. "This is Poo, prince of Dalaam! What do you need?"

"Hey, Poo!" Ness said cheerfully. "What's up?"

"The ceiling, as it was the last several times you asked me that, Mr. Ness!" Poo responded. Ness allowed himself a quiet laugh- Poo still didn't quite get a lot of Eagleland's culture. "What do you require? My friend was just about to wash his hair!"

"What does that-" Ness was about to ask, but he cut himself short. He had forgotten that, in Dalaam, the phones were kept on the tops of peoples' heads. "Alright, I'll be quick. Poo, I need you to come to Onette!"

"Are you already experiencing the feelings of missing for me, Mr. Ness?"

"Well, kind of," Ness admitted- it was great to hear Poo's voice again, that much was true. "But the thing is..." And he explained the situation for the second time in almost as many minutes.

"Oh, this is crisis, yes?" Poo asked.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad," Ness agreed, "but Jeff has a plan, so we wanted to call you and Paula in for backup. You mind teleporting to her place and taking her here?"

"Whatever you ask for, Mr. Ness. I vowed to serve you, and serve I shall!"

"You're not my servant, Poo," Ness shook his head, repeating this for the umpteenth time since he'd met the Dalaamese boy. "I appreciate your help, but you don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

"But I _want _to assist you, Mr. Ness!"

"Great," Ness smiled. "Alright, grab Paula and meet us in town hall!"

"Town hall?"

Ness froze. Finally, he said, "Paula will explain," and quickly hung up. Finally, he turned towards the door. Time to make it or break it...

XXXX

About half an hour later, Paula and Poo finally arrived in the town hall, where Ness and Jeff were waiting to meet them. "Thanks for throwing me under the bus for _that _explanation, Ness," Paula muttered.

"Oh, really?" Ness asked, eyebrows raised. "You're welcome, I guess."

"He still needs that sarcasm sign," Jeff muttered.

"And you didn't even leave me a map or anything," Paula muttered.

"Doesn't matter," Jeff shook his head. "We've got to get to planning."

"Planning what? The way I hear it, we're pretty far outnumbered."

"Leave it to me," Jeff repeated, tapping his forehead.

"Is there something wrong with your forehead, friend?" Poo asked.

"No, it's just a sign," Jeff said quickly.

"Oh. Should we follow it?"

Jeff slapped his face. "Oh, boy."

"I am indeed a boy, friend, but I fail to see why you must slap your face for it," Poo said.

"Sometimes I think he does this on purpose," Paula muttered.

Ness interrupted before they could get further off track. "Alright, Jeff, how many people showed up?"

"Not as many as I'd hoped," Jeff muttered, "but it should still be enough to work with. Come on."

Ness looked around as they entered the hall's main room, where there were only a handful of people waiting. Ness noticed that Mayor Pirkle, for instance, was absent, though his assistant was there, as was Captain Strong and his five best men, Frank and a handful of Sharks, the Travelling Entertainers, Lier X. Aggerate, Tracy, and the guy who was always playing his saxophone over the ocean. Sitting nearby him was... "Everdred?" Ness gasped. "What are _you _doing here?"

"Oh, nothing, Ness, my boy!" Everdred said, a little too quickly to be believable.

Ness quietly closed his eyes, allowing the thoughts of those around him to seep into his own mind, focusing in on Everdred. _Man, with all the chaos those Blue Bloods are causing, thieving around here is easier than anywhere else!_

"Heh, should've known," Ness chuckled. "Same old Everdred."

"What? Did I say something?"

"Oh, nothing," Ness smiled, heading up and standing next to Jeff at the head of the hall.

Jeff stood and spoke first. "Alright, people of Onette!" he called out. Off to the side, he muttered, "And Everdred." Out loud again: "My friends and I here have just gotten back from quite the adventure, and what do we find? That this town has been taken over once more by the very evil we set out to stop! Will we allow this?"

"NOOOO!" was the general cry.

"They're nothing but a bunch of troublemakers!" Captain Strong called out, to the general agreement of his men.

"They trashed Frank's place, and anyone who's against Frank is against the Sharks!" the Sharks called, bringing a tear to Frank's eye.

"You guys..." he said quietly.

"They ruined our shack _again_!" the Traveling entertainers cried.

"They've been ruining all my billboards!" Lier raised his voice. "You seen my billboards out there? That's my job, you know, I'm a billboard guy."

"They made my brother sad!" Tracy shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

Jeff raised his hands for silence. "I think we've got a general picture here. Now, the Blue Bloods will be coming into town soon, so we're going to put our heads together to form a plan of action! By tonight, we're all going to be free!"

Cheers and scattered applause. Ness looked over the crowd and saw the members of his old club in the woods whooping up a storm.

"Now, I think, in the end, we'll have to face their leader head-on," Jeff acknowledged, "but we have several advantages! Anyone know any?"

Frank raised his hand. "You're kidding with the raised hand, right?" Jeff asked, eyes half-closed.

"This is our town!" Frank called. "We know this place like the back of our hands, and they just got here a week or two ago!"

"That's a good advantage," Jeff acknowledged, "but not the one I'm looking for."

"We have the law on our side!" Captain Strong called out.

"Always good to be morally right," Jeff nodded, "but I was thinking more along the lines of advantages in a fight."

"Lots of exercise and garlic?" Lier X. Aggerate called out, causing everyone to fall silent.

Jeff refused to dignify that one with a response. "No, the answer I was looking for is that we have the element of surprise on our side! The Blue Bloods know that they have _one _troublemaker to deal with," here, he nodded at Ness, "but what they'd _never _expect is for the whole town to turn against them!"

"You mean we're all going to fight them?" one of the Sharks called out. "Because... I don't know if I can handle that..."

"No, we're not going to fight them all- not head-on, at least," Jeff shook his head. "In the ideal situation, we'd only have to fight against their leader. What I'm suggesting is that we gather up materials from all over town, and we're going to make the whole town into one giant booby trap- potholes, trip wires, whatever we need. We want to take these people down before they even get the _chance _to fight back!"

"Now _that's _a plan I can get behind!" Everdred called out, to a general consensus.

"Alright," Jeff said, "Ness, Paula, Poo and I will go out and get some materials. You guys should do the same- everyone meet back here in an hour, and we'll coordinate our positions- by the end of this day, the Blue Bloods will regret messing with your town!"

Amongst the cheers and applause, Jeff stood down and beckoned to the others.

"Wow, Jeff, you're really fired up about this," Paula said, sounding impressed.

"What can I say?" Jeff shrugged, giving a slight smile as he led them out.

XXXX

What followed next for the group felt more like a scavenger hunt than anything else, everyone going around and collecting things they felt they'd need for this final battle. Jeff, as anyone who knew him could have predicted, was collecting things that nobody would ever have normally considered the stuff of weapons or traps, and adding them to his stockpile for later use. Finally, Ness got up the courage to speak to him. "Hey, Jeff, buddy, there's an idea I just got!"

"I doubt I'll like it," Jeff muttered, "but alright, let's hear it."

"Paula! Poo! You guys, too!"

Once they were all gathered around, Ness ran his ideas past them.

"No, no, we're not doing that," Jeff said instantly.

"But come _on_, it'd be so _cool_!" Ness moaned.

"It _does _sound kind of cheesy," Paula said, not particularly into the idea. "Poo, what do you-"

"What Master Ness says, I will do!" Poo said immediately.

"You see? Poo's on board!"

"However, even I find this to be a bit much, Mr. Ness," Poo interrupted.

"So... so we're not doing it?" Ness asked, his lip beginning to tremble.

Paula sighed, then beckoned the others away. "Alright, guys, it might be a little painful, but let's just do it."

"You want to give in to him? Just like that?" Jeff asked bemusedly.

"Let's face it, in a second or two, he's going to look over here with those puppy dog eyes of his, and we're going to give in anyways. Might as well do it now just to save time."

Slowly, the three looked over to where Ness was crouched, shivering. Slowly, he turned to them with his eyes wide in the most pathetic-looking puppy dog face imaginable. *Whimper, whimper.*

_The eyes!_ Poo gasped to himself.

*whimper, whimper.*

_Those puppy dog eyes!_ Paula cried, rasing her arm to cover her own.

*Whimper, whimper.*

Finally, Jeff broke. "Alright, we'll _do _it!" he caved. Ness immediately perked up, yipping like a pleased dog. Jeff sighed. "He owes me one for this."

XXXX

Finally, the group met up back in town hall. Everyone seemed to have gathered something to use. As Jeff began to coordinate them, telling them where to go and what to do, when the time came, Ness went over to Tracy. "Oh, Tracy!" he said in a singsong voice as he approached.

"What is it, big brother?"

"Happy birthday!" he said, presenting her with a box.

Tracy gave a gasp. "You mean... you remembered?"

"Of course! I was going to pick you up something later, but I thought I'd get this to you now."

Tracy eagerly ripped the paper off, revealing a slingshot.

"I want you to stay as far out of the action as you can, alright?" Ness said. "Just stay back and use that to hit some of these guys if you can, okay?"

"Okay, big brother," Tracy nodded, smiling.

XXXX

Finally, the time was coming. The police and Sharks, finding themselves in the unusual position of working together, took their places on opposite sides of the town. Tracy hid out on the ceiling of the hotel, briefly borrowing her brother's hawkeye to better see what she was aiming for. Lier, not wanting to be in the action itself, had simply done some work on the billboards and left for his house, preferring to watch from a distance.

Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo, meanwhile, stood directly in the middle of the street, the bait that would lure the Blue Bloods in.

After several tense minutes of waiting, everyone twitched as two people made their way out of the forest, but the tension lowered again as they realized neither person was wearing the signature jacket of the Blue Bloods.

One of them was a young man with dark brown hair. "Oh, it's about time," he smiled as he looked up at the town. "Finally, we can get some R&amp;R..."

"You know, Gale, I agree," the young woman next to him said, tall with blond hair. She smiled. "My feet are killing me."

No sooner had she said this than a gunshot rang out, and the young woman collapsed to the ground. The boy turned to look at her. "T-Tanea! NOOOO!"

Everyone stared as he grabbed her, lifting her over his shoulder, and rushed off towards the hospital. Running a quick check through his head, Ness realized that neither the doctor or nurse was among those waiting in the wings- hopefully, the boy could get her to them in time.

But he didn't have time to worry too much, as a storm of footsteps was coming from the same path. It seemed that Frank had been correct- the entire gang had turned up for the occasion. He crossed his fingers as the group crossed into the town, saw them standing in the street, and began running forward.

Ness quietly muttered to himself, "Psi Flash!" A flash of light emanated from his body, momentarily freezing the Blue Bloods where they stood and granting time for everyone else to spring into action.

Paula, Jeff, and Poo ran to their respective places, and one by one, the traps began to spring. The Blue Bloods were stumbling over trip wires and falling into holes left and right, things that they might have been able to see normally, but couldn't with tears in their eyes from the flash. One by one, Tracy above them let loose with whatever was in reach, striking one after another gang member upside the head with her slingshot. Everdred repeatedly ran across the street, stealing something from one of the Blue Bloods as he ran, and repeated the process. At one point, he was caught, only for his captor to be struck in the head with a high-velocity marble. Multiple of the gang members were distracted by the billboards Jeff had had Lier working on, only to fall into more pitfalls awaiting them there. The Sharks stepped out and began their work of lighting up adult drinks and tossing them into the throng of oncoming Blue Bloods, causing even more chaos and disorder. Finally, the few Blue Bloods that were left were being intercepted by the police, coming out chopping.

In the end, only two of the Blue Bloods made it as far as Ness, who had been standing in the street since the beginning, waiting.

"That's... that's him," one of them panted- Ness recognized him as the same man who'd been threatening Frank earlier. "That's the one... who started all this..."

The other one turned to stare at him- and Ness stared right back. So, _this _was the leader of the Blue Bloods- a tall woman stood before him, guns at the ready in both hands. However, her most eye-catching feature was her hair, long and blue, stretching down to the middle of her back.

"Don't you know who I am, boy?" she growled down at him.

"You're the leader of the blue bloods, aren't you?"

"That's right- Corvus, leader of the Blue Bloods, and don't you forget it!"

"Ness!" came a cry from a nearby rooftop, and Ness turned to see Jeff reluctantly tossing down his Gaia beam.

Ness grinned as he caught it, spun around, and pointed it at Corvus. "Corvus, huh?" he asked. "Wouldn't forget that name- it's so funny!"

"Funny?" Corvus asked, an eyebrow twitching. "You think I'm _funny_?!"

"Funny-_lookin_', at least," Ness said, that wide grin spreading back across his face. "And then you take over _my _town? You're really not the brightest bulb in the socket, are you?"

The man from earlier gasped. "Boss, you're not going to-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he was struck in the eye by a stray marble, causing him to collapse to the ground.

Corvus stepped forward, glowering. "You _will not _speak to me that way! You're just a little kid!"

"Yeah, but this little kid is protected by the power of friendship!" Ness smiled, not even raising his gun to match Corvus's as he stepped forward. "It's the most powerful force in the world, and you've got no chance of breaking it!"

"Are you _really _giving me this speech right now?" Corvus growled, and, without a further word, raised her guns and began firing. The bullets rushed towards Ness, and then... disappeared.

"What the-" she gasped, staring.

"I told you," Ness shrugged. "You see, here in Onette, we stand together, and that gives us a protection some dirtbag like you could never understand!"

Corvus let out a shout of anger, firing another volley of bullets. Ness whistled, pretending to file his nails as each and every one of the bullets failed to come near him. "You're not going to get a hit in on me without understanding the real superpower of friendship!" he smiled.

Corvus looked down at her guns, dropped them, and drew a knife instead. She rushed forwards, brandishing it, until Ness suddenly swung out with his bat once more, making direct contact with her head, knocking her across the road and into a garbage can.

"It's good!" Ness cheered excitedly.

Slowly, Corvus forced herself out of the garbage can, looking more enraged than ever, lifting it up and preparing to throw it. However, as she lifted it up, she noticed Jeff on the other side of the road. "Garbage day!" said boy from Winters called out, wincing as the line Ness had fed him earlier crossed his lips. He raised his heavy bazooka and fired a shot, streaking across the road and hitting Corvus directly in the forehead.

And, long story short, she wasn't heard from again.

XXXX

There was a party in the Town Hall that night, as everyone celebrated their liberation- again. The Blue Bloods had either been captured by the police, by the Sharks, or simply fled when they'd heard what happened to their leader.

Ness and his friends met up by the punch bowl. "Well, that was a wild ride," Ness said, smiling. "I admit, I was hoping we'd have another adventure, but I didn't think it would happen _that _soon."

"Hey, everything worked out in the end, didn't it?" Jeff pointed out. "You were _really _aching to give that 'power of friendship' speech, weren't you?"

"Well, we never got to do it on our adventure," Ness pointed out. "I was looking forward to it _so much _from the moment Buzz Buzz told me what was going on, and I just... never got to do it. But hey, it _was _the power of friendship- along with some defense spray from you and some psychic shielding from Paula and Poo." Nodding at them, he added, "Thanks for that, by the way."

"No problem," Paula smiled. "You've got your home back!"

"You know, this reminds me, I've got to give the victory speech!" Ness suddenly said, perking up again.

Jeff groaned. "No, no, you really don't."

"It's common!" Ness interjected. "I have to give my dramatic victory speech, then ride off into the sunset!"

Raising his voice, he declared, "My friends, the people of Onette, we have achieved a great victory today, laying down the law, ensuring that it will prosper! For without our law, what would we be? As the good book says, 'Thou shalt not put I before E, except after C, and when sounding like A is a neighbor in way! And on weekends, and holidays, and all throughout May, never shalt thou say 'Nay,' as Sir Biebs-a-Lot would say!"

Jeff snapped. "And _that_-" he growled, grabbing Ness by the ear before he could continue embarrassing himself, "-is officially where I lose my patience. Come on, you wanted to show me the arcade, right?"

"Oh, right, we've got some great games! Want me to show you my high score on Donkey Kong? Come to think of it, I was going to play some of that just before I headed out, but then I got into that fight with Frank, and then I had to go talk to the Mayor, so I really never got the chance..."

As the boy's incessant chatter faded into the distance, Paula closed her eyes, shaking her head in smiling. "Same old Ness," she muttered. Not that she'd ever have it any other way.

_XXXX_

And thus ends another chapter of the _Live Alive _mini-series! Or the first, if this is the first you're reading! As I said, you could probably read these stories in any order you wanted- with a couple exceptions that haven't been written yet. Ness's story draws to a close, and if you just wanted to read this one, then I guess this is it. But for anyone following the series as a whole, there are eight other stories left- seven of which still need to be written. I'll get on that right away, and in the meantime, please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames not so much, Gamer4 out!


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